Cycling the Bay Area & Stories from the Garden

My Little Orchid: Paphiopedilum

It appears that my little orchid is actually a Paphiopedilum Orchid – and will bloom into a single large ‘lady’s slipper‘ type flower. The petals are beginning to spread and the ‘slipper’ is beginning to develop in the center. I can’t wait to see how the color develops.

Hello World!

I found this website, Beautiful Orchids, across the bay in San Francisco, which has a great gallery of Paphiopedilum Orchid’s in bloom. Mine may be the ‘Black Lady’s Slipper’, at least that is the closest I can find that looks like my little girl in her current stage of flowering.

A wider view - the petals open to reveal her lovely slipper

Top-Side view as the bloom begins her emergence

One more - Paphiopedilum orchid opens her wings and takes flight

My other Orchids are doing well, no sign of flower spikes, but that is okay – they are healthy and appear to be enjoying their place in my home. I was quite anxious when my friend dropped them off with me, having never cared for an Orchid, and only hearing the typical stories of how difficult and ‘only for advanced’ gardeners they were. Well, don’t believe the hype my friends, they are plants, if you can keep a more traditional houseplant alive and healthy, you can most likely keep an Orchid alive and healthy as well.

The best advice I can give from my own personal experience:

Do some research – how can you make your environment more like their native environment?

Follow growing advice as respects watering – I only water them about every 7 to 10-days – watering deeply when I do water

Use a good growing medium for your orchid – a bag of Orchid bark is about $7.00 and worth every penny

Check for signs of damage and/or need – is the pseudobulb shriveled a bit? more water. Are the leaves yellowing? less sun

I recently re-potted all of my Orchids with a commercially available Orchid bark, and have been watering them only when they appear to be need it (about every 7 – 10-days) and they are doing much, much better than when I initially took them in.

I must have made every error one can make with an Orchid (short of killing them). I left them outside – in the full sun (bad!) and they showed definite signs of burning, so I moved them indoors (into the bathroom = no light = bad!), then I finally moved them to the bookshelf in front of the sliding glass patio door where they receive bright indirect sunlight and with the sliding door open, receive much-needed air circulation. I also asked a lot of questions; seeking advice from bloggers, horticulturists, my local plant store – if you do the basics, you too can keep and bloom these exotic beauties!